Grills will be fired up, fireworks will be lit and music will be played as communities through the area gear up for the Fourth of July holiday.

Harrah's Metropolis Casino and Hotel and Ingram Barge Co. of Metropolis are joining forces to provide a community fireworks display at dusk, which will be at approximately at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 4 at the Metropolis riverfront.

The public is invited to bring lawn chairs and/or blankets to Dorothy Miller Park, located east of Harrah's Hotel on Front Street.

The fireworks will be launched from a barge on the Ohio River.

Brookport will be having a Fourth of July celebration starting with a parade from Margrave Street down Third Street to the park at 5 p.m. Parade entries are welcome.

Ice cream cones will be served, courtesy of the city, with vendors serving up fish dinners and other items.

Entertainment is planned, leading up to the fireworks at 9 p.m.

Residents are invited to come meet the politicians, watch a talent show and listen to music performed by the Church of God Youth Band and Mt. Zion’s gospel group.

It’s not too late to participate.

If interested in being in the parade, talent show or being a vendor, call Cathy Tucker at 618-638-3156.

The Independence Day activities for Paducah will begin at 7 p.m. July 4 on the Wilson Stage on Paducah's Riverfront, with free entertainment and fireworks starting at approximately 9:15 p.m.

Several food and non-food vendors will be set up.

Grand Chain Community Development Association, with assistance from Living Hope Fellowship Church, will be coordinating the Fourth of July Main Street Celebration on Wednesday, July 4 from 6-9 p.m.

Food, fun and music will be available for the entire family. Events will be centered around Main Street, Grand Chain Mini Storage Pavilion and Grand Chain Jail.

Steel Dove will provide the live music. Main Street Barbeque will be selling barbeque, hamburgers and hot dogs. Homemade desserts will also be offered.

Attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs, sparklers, beach towels and water guns in order to enjoy and participate in the fire truck water spray, apple bobbing, water balloon volleyball and the sparkler circle, which will be at 8:45 p.m.

A patriotic drama will be at 7 p.m. with Dea Hoff portraying Betsy Ross, and Tim Frizzell will read Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address.

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An outdoor movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington will be around 9 p.m.

The Village Library will be open for book donations at the former Huebotter’s Store.

For more information, contact Chris Everett at 618-638-2764 or June Badgley at 270-832-2604.

Goreville’s Freedom Fest will begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 4, starting with a parade.

“Previously the parade began around one o’clock and not only split up the day, it was the hottest part of the day,” said Dusty Lingle, Freedom Fest committee chairman. “The new time allows for a smoother transition from the parade into the evening concerts and fireworks.”

For those looking to make an entire day out of it, the lineup of activities begin with a 5K run/walk in its second year as a new addition to the festival with a registration start time of 6:30 a.m. followed by the race an hour later.

Runners will be bussed to Ferne Clyffe State Park and “enjoy a beautiful and complex course” as they race back to Goreville, said Jason Beckmann, committee vice-chairman.

Other events will continue after the runners wrap up the morning with a one-mile children’s fun run, followed by a car show, afternoon gospel concerts, cloggers, games, food venders, the parade and an evening concert featuring the Cache River Band at 7 p.m.

A full list of events, times and locations can be found online at the festival’s new website, GorevilleFreedomFest.com, where visitors can register online for the 5K run, purchase Freedom Fest T-shirts and donate to support the committee’s ongoing efforts to make the event bigger and better next year, said Lingle.

Touted as one of the biggest fireworks displays for small towns in southern Illinois, the evening is capped off around dusk with a patriotic display of gunpowder lighting up the night sky and free to all.

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